WAAAYTOOO

The upside down pineapple is supposedly the “advertisement” for swingers. I hate that the pineapple has been so undeservedly maligned.

Sorry, I'm sure this is covered somewhere.... We are going to be on Explorer for 23 days and I'd rather not pay $25/day if I can help it. I know there are some offsite parking places that are sketchy. Does anyone have any recommendations for offsite parking at PoM and provides transport to/from the terminal ?

Looks fantastic, @Neesa !

The only time I've heard the song recently was [on the ship] in the morning of arrival to PDCC just before the announcement is made to go ashore. Of course, there's no way I would know whether they play it on shore or not since I never EVER get off at PDCC anymore ! LOL

How is it even possible that there are any forgotten items ?

Oops...I made a mistake about the date for Wonder rezzie for our annual comp. We actually used Dan's annual Club Royale tier comp for our August Wonder cruise. The upcoming (May) cruise on Wonder is our Pinnacle cruise. Forgive the old brain.

You can use your annual tier certificate for any ship that has been in active service for at least 1 year. We used an annual tier certificate to sail on Wonder this coming May.

Welcome aboard, Boss !

I'm sure this won't be a popular opinion, but I will admit to doing this... Just slip the "foreign" coin into a bet (put it on the bottom) and it will eventually get mixed in with the others. I've done this maybe twice...and it was never noticed.

Casino As I mentioned in an earlier post, the casino was insane most evenings. Like @Ampurp85, I seem to have better luck during the days when the casino is fairly slow. Once things start getting crazy at night, my luck goes bye-bye. We played more video poker on this cruise than we have ever done in the past. It's kind of Dan's new "thing". We even played some kind of pig game (can't remember the name of it) which was fun. We needed just a few points to get to the 2000 level so we sat down there and got what we needed. I find the whole video poker thing to be too stressful. I have to "think" too much and I got bored really fast. But then I get bored with any kind of slot machine. They just aren't my favorite way to lose money. As [bad] luck would have it, we found absolutely NO good luck on the non-smoking side of the casino. We opted to spend more time on the smoking side and that just doesn't agree with me anymore. I am a former smoker but I just can't tolerate it now....plus you go home stinkin' to high heaven. UGH So we made our 2000 points (we only used Dan's card in the machines so the cert is in his name, not that it matters) so we got a very nice certificate and have already booked an 8 night Oasis cruise in January 2025. I got a $$ of cert so we combined them to help with the cabin upgrade and other associated expenses. A free cruise can get very expensive !

Coastal Kitchen As you may recall from my earlier posts, they would not permit us to use our BOGO coupons except for the first night and since we wanted to enjoy the filet on night #1, there were no other chances to do any specialty dining unless we wanted to pay full onboard prices. Uh...no. So we decided that we would eat in the CK every night since the Maitre'd said that we would have no problem making reservations for all 4 nights. We had 4 dinners, 3 breakfasts and 1 lunch in the CK. Believe it or not, that one lunch that we ate there is the one and only time we have EVER had a lunch in a CK on any ship ! We have always either been Star Class or GenPop on an Oasis class ship and before becoming Pinnacle, we had no access to the CK unless we were in a suite and the only suites we've ever had on an O class ship, were SC suites and we were eating our lunches in specialty restaurants for the most part. The service in the CK was amazing. The Maitre'd, restaurant manager and our own personal server (Anelyne) were just spectacular. I could not have asked for better service. Period. The food was hit-or-miss for me. Dan was a cappy hamper the whole time. He loved everything that he got and so he was in heaven. I did not care at ALL for 2 out of the 4 menus that we had. I've already discussed the night that they gave me the wonderful a la carte options from the kids' menu. That was really a good recovery for that night and I thoroughly enjoyed my low budget chicken parm. But the last night. Ugh, Dan had his beloved lamb shank but there was absolutely nothing on that menu that even sounded remotely good to me. I finally opted for the cauliflower fried rice and it was....not good. The breakfasts were very good but it'd kinda hard to screw up breakfast. Standard stuff. Nothing amazing. The lunch was fine. Nothing spectacular. Dan and I split a chicken sandwich and fries. I guess this immersive CK experience reminded me that I am not, and have never been, a huge fan of the CK. It's not awful but it's nothing special EXCEPT for the views and the extraordinary service, both of which we have always appreciated.

Ok...so we're home. Fairly uneventful last couple of days. I will just throw out some random thoughts. The Shows Aqua Theater show: I had forgotten what a real Aqua Theater show is like. Allure reminded me. It was all about the diving and the water talents and less about aerialists, stomping and splashing. While nothing beats Aqua80's on Oasis (primarily b/c of the musical arrangement), I think OceanAria is a close second. I almost decided to skip it. I'm glad I didn't. Ice Show: Blades is very different from what I am used to with ice shows. I liked some of it and I hated some of it. I think the hardest part for me was that I was unfamiliar with some of the music and that made it hard to enjoy. It is what it is. The skaters are all very talented and that's always fun to watch. Blue Planet: I was very surprised to find that a great deal of this show has changed since the last time I saw it ! This is another one that I nearly skipped but I'm glad I went if only to see what has changed. I suppose someone must have fallen from the living tree at some point and they basically quit having the performers "hiding" up in the tree. There were still some performers "hiding" in the roots section of the tree but primarily the performers "coming to life" in the tree branches is now GONE ! They also changed the music. I recall there being a whole section of Beatles music which is also gone. There are parts of the show that are little changed but great parts of it have changed significantly. No wonder this show is now a "snoozer" to some. I felt it was a snoozer, too. Mama Mia: I enjoy the Abba music but I have always hated the "plot" of MM. We DID skip this one this time. One and done for us. Stupid and pointless with the music being the only redeeming part of the show.

Sometimes the redeemed OBC takes a while to show up on your Cruise Planner. While I have never done this myself, I have heard that others have been able to call BofA and have them apply the OBC immediately so that it will be available for your use in the CP. We use the BofA RC Visa card a LOT and we love it. Good luck !

I definitely have a trend. I do bad at the beginning of the cruise and even worse towards the end !

Agree with the others. They survey is lame and IMO, useless. You direct comm with the Genie will be more than enough to convey all of your preferences and needs.

I think it depends on the specific "sale". I have 2 cruises booked in 2025/26 with a TA that are group rates and both have OBC attached.

1. Suite Lounge - Yes. Full access including happy hour where the beverages are complimentary for suite guests. Children are welcome 2. Chops breakfast - yes 3. Suites pool - no. We stayed in one of the panoramic suites on AD for Christmas and New Years cruises this past December. They are really nice. Very big. Negatives - you feel all of the ocean's motion by being high and on the bow. Since you are all the way forward, you are pretty much on the wrong end of the ship for most of the things that we do - like the SL....but both of those negatives are worth having these beautiful suites.

“Stole” ? Nah…just a wee taste. . Yesterday we both got a margarita at the Sabor bar and they were really horrible. They tasted bad plus they had ice boulders in them ! This one today came from a pool bar (can’t recall the name) and it tasted like a margarita is supposed to taste plus - no ice boulders !

If I’m not mistaken, it was a post on this board but I’m not certain of that. It was definitely an online post somewhere.

We had quite a shipwide quest for lunch munch. As I’ve said before, we rarely eat lunch at all….especially since we eat an early dinner, but b/c we CAN, I guess, we HAVE been eating lunch on this cruise. Dan wanted to go to the Suites sun deck for a bit - but failed to find it so ended up lounging with the poors somewhere. Who knows where. When he came back to the room I told him that I would go with him to FIND the SSD since I haven’t been on one in a very long time. So we trekked to the front of the ship, entered the forbidden zone, did a perimeter check and realized that the bar up there isn’t open (in port today) so decided that since we are on a ship we MUST eat ( @OCSC Mike Must be subliminally messaging me) so we began plotting where this meal would transpire. I am one of a handful of adults in the world who really enjoys the dogs at the Doghouse so my vote was for a dog. Dan is shunning nitrite-infused junk food so he turned up his nose at the notion of a dog. He wanted ELF (as if that is any healthier ??) (I await @asquared17 reaction) but I vetoed that one. We were at an impasse. He finally blinked and said he would go with me for a dog, a miscommunication b/c I thought he had changed his mind about eating there…but instead, he meant that he would go with me but NOT eat so I ended up eating a dog (sans the bun). That left him hangry. Hmmm. I decided to return his generosity by going with him to ELF. BUT the line at ELF was endless and it wasn’t moving. Ok. Plan C. We decided to see if the CK was open for lunch on port days. We didn’t know. Up to 17 we went. By now it’s 1:15. They were open but closing at 1:30. Dan finally got a Caesar salad and I looked on with love and support. Waaay more work for lunch than was necessary. Somewhere in this long tale Dan acquired a margarita which was pretty tasty. Now it’s nap time.

Can you even call it a Bezos spree anymore since he’s liquidating all of his Amazon stock ?

...unfortunately... I wish they would just spruce AL up a bit - paint, new carpeting, replace some furniture and call it "good". But that's not going to happen.

So far, so good. We had mimosas with breakfast ! BIG splurge for me. I almost never drink alcohol and certainly NEVER in the morning...but it seemed appropriate. We're in Nassau today (blah) so we will not be getting off the ship. Kinda coolish and windy here anyway. Dinner tonite in the CK. Dan will be happy. I think tonite is lamb shank. I'll find something. Which brings up an interesting thing from last night's dinner. Last night's menu was really bad (for me). There wasn't a darn thing I wanted. Dan got braised veal which he thoroughly enjoyed. So I asked for the children's menu. LOL. I got plain spaghetti with marinara and chicken fingers. I also asked if they had a small tossed salad. I didn't want anything fancy...just some lettuce, tomatoes and olives with some ranch dressing. Anelyn, our server (AWESOME lady) asked the chef to prepare me a special salad, which came out exactly as I had asked for it. SOOO nice. I chopped up the chicken tenders and mixed them in with the spaghetti for a kinda low-budget chicken parm (without the parm ). It was a thoroughly delicious meal, and all a la carte. Could I have gotten this in the MDR ? I don't know. Maybe. ...but I was impressed that both Anelyn and the chef were so quick to make a special meal for me. I wanted to tip the chef and I asked Anelyn to please give the money to him. She said "no" that she would bring the chef out to meet me. He was such a sweet, young and gracious guy. It was an honor to meet him and give him his tip in person. IMO, THIS is what tipping is all about. Both of them had gone waaay out of their way to make my evening memorable and I appreciated it. An interesting side note regarding the picky eater story above....both @OCSC Mike (wife) and @Ampurp85 kept passing across my mind...with the tales of their pickiness. I knew they would be proud !

I also really love my folding, hanging toiletries bag. I attach it to the ceiling with magnetic hooks and it so convenient.